A former St. Paul and Eden Prairie police officer filed a federal lawsuit Monday claiming that 100 fellow officers invaded her privacy when they looked up her driver's license photo in a Minnesota state database some 400 times.

Anne Marie Rasmusson, 38, filed the 31-page suit against nine Twin Cities communities, Ramsey County and the University of Minnesota in U.S. District Court.

Rasmusson said those who accessed her private information had no "legitimate business reason to do so."

"The extent of this illegal access appears to be widespread and pervasive throughout departments, and is a custom and practice," the suit alleges.

The suit went on to say women are disproportionately targeted by such searches.

Rasmusson became suspicious about 2007, the lawsuit said, when officers began "taking an uncomfortable interest in her." Newly divorced, she said men who somehow knew where she lived and what kind of car she drove began asking her out.

Rasmusson has said she believes the interest was in her picture. While working in Eden Prairie, she lost about 100 pounds. After she retired from St. Paul, she entered fitness competitions for a short time.

"They weren't looking me up to see my personality," Rasmusson said earlier this year.

But the extent of the intrusion became clearer Aug. 30, when she learned from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety that officers from 18 agencies had reviewed her private information since 2007.

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"She became physically ill upon learning that fact; she pulled over, opened her car door, and vomited," the lawsuit said.

By mid-2009, the suit said, Rasmusson began pulling away from former colleagues "and those she considered friends. More and more, she began to live a secluded, even hermit-like, reclusive existence."

By July 2010, she had moved from the Twin Cities to rural northern Minnesota. She has since closed all social media accounts, installed a security gate and alarm system, and changed her phone numbers, the suit states.

Last October, she learned from the news media that the violations involved about 100 officers on about 400 occasions.

"Upon learning of the sheer volume of intrusions, Rasmusson again became physically sick," the suit said.

The Department of Public Safety confirmed that officers from the following agencies had viewed the information: Bloomington, Burnsville, Cottage Grove, Eagan, Eden Prairie, Lakeville, Minneapolis, Minnetonka, St. Paul, the Ramsey County sheriff's office and the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

According to the lawsuits, one of the offenders was Eden Prairie police Sgt. Carter Staaf, who "encouraged his subordinates to conduct their own DVS (Driver and Vehicle Services) queries of Rasmusson's information because she was very attractive and so they could see that 'she's changed and she's got a new look.' "

Rasmusson served on the Eden Prairie police force from 1996 to 1999, when she was injured in the line of duty.

In 2001, she became an officer in St. Paul. Two years later, she was diagnosed with nerve damage and an unstable pelvis related to the earlier injury, the suit said. She was granted a full medical retirement in December 2003.

When she met with a representative of the St. Paul Police Department in September 2011, she was told 13 officers had viewed her driver's license information. Rasmusson alleges in her suit, "upon information and belief," that 42 St. Paul officers accessed her record 175 times and that 24 Minneapolis officers accessed her record 133 times.

On Monday evening, spokesmen for the Ramsey County and St. Paul city attorney's offices declined to comment, saying they had yet to review the suit. A Minneapolis city spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.

The Drivers Privacy Protection Act bars Minnesota law enforcement officers from accessing personal information in the state motor vehicle database unless it's to carry out a function of their agency. Records are to be accessed only in an investigative capacity.

The suit seeks at least $5,000 for each illegal access of her records, at least $3 million for physical and mental suffering, and court costs.

One of Rasmusson's attorneys, Lorenz Fett of Minneapolis, declined to comment beyond what was detailed in the suit.